Someone mentioned in the Seasickness post crew getting hallucinations . It reminded me of my experience.
It was I think the 1980 Mel/Hobart which for us slower boats was a beat for most of the way. Anyway we were within 2 miles of our arch enemy ,an SS34, all the way down the west coast when at the turn at Maatsuyker Island we tacked offshore they went inshore .At the next sked we discovered we were over two hours behind so the seven of us agreed to get everyone except helm and trimmer on rail and carry as much sail as possible till we get to Constitution Dock. BIG MISTAKE . After around 12 hrs with no rest we were half way up storm bay at around 0300hrs .
Pitch black ,I had been on the helm all that time steering by compass ,everyone else stiil on rails when I saw the compass in front of me spinning and the boat did a 360. Frightened the hell out of me but no one said anything!
About 5 mins later it started happening again. I was gripping the tiller in a straight position as if my life depended on it.
No one said anything again and I realised it was me the boat was tracking straight all the time. I had the navigator take the tiller.
Scary stuff.
If you look real hard at my avatar coming up storm bay you will see a crew in bow ready to bring the number one down. I said wait till the plane had taken his photos . We sailed the last 20 hrs. on the edge. Never again.
Hehe, good one.
The main one I remember is the first hallucination I had at sea.
I was sailing single handed from Laurieton to Broken Bay, in one go. Had a beautiful NE'er all day, just got past Seal rocks at sunset. As it got into the night the wind backed (as it often does ) to be more N even NNW. Not wanting to be on a starboard tack, that would take me closer to land at night, I decided to stay on a port tack, but as the wind backed that meant I was heading further & further out to sea. The wind was a steady 25kts all night & I was flying!!.
I didn't worry at all about plotting my position as I knew there were no hazards ahead, I just kept a good look-out (but I was soooo tired).
Just before dawn I popped below to plot position, before I had finished doing that, I ducked my head up to look around....& saw TREE TOPS to the west! with the sun rising behind them. $h!t !!! I got up into the cockpit fast, gybed away from the 'island', then checked the compass, everything was ok there I was still heading S.
I knew I had made excellent SOG, but surely I hadn't made it to Fiji or some undiscovered Pacific Island??.
Looking at the tree tops, I could clearly see the branches & tree top canopies, & below them, at the water line was a smooth white rocky/bouldery shoreline.
The water around me looked deep & clear ahead, so once it was established I wasn't going to run aground, I calmed down a bit, I considered anchoring, getting the dinghy off the cabin top & rowing over to the 'Island' to sleep under the trees. Did I mention I was soo tired?.
My brain spent the next 20 mins trying to convince my eyes that they were not seeing what they were seeing.
As the sun rose further it revealed that the 'trees' were the horizon to horizon cloud band that I now know often occurs, & the white boulders was the sun peering through between the horizon & the clouds.
When I did plot my position soon after, I was 35nm offshore.
It is part of single handed sailing. Loneliness. Tiredness.
Slocum had it, Moetissier had it Pete Goss, Allan Edwards you, me had it, Crowhurst succumbed to it...
Lying in my bunk I heard people go past me boat on their morning walk...................................a miracle really, I was miles offshore?
Coming back from the 1981 Sydney-Noumea, I changed boats because the one I was one wasn't going to leave for some time. I ended up with a lunatic skipper on a boat that was falling apart and at 19 years of age, I was the most experienced ocean sailor on board. The weather was cruddy, the boat had issues, I had no sleep.
After a few days without decent sleep I was at the helm one night when my father (who had been killed sailing when I was three years old, 16 years before) climbed up the topsides covered with seaweed, and implored me to join him full fathom five......
Joshua Slocum in his circumnavigation in the Spray in the 1890's was visited several times by the navigator from Colombus' Pinta from the 1590's.
Select to expand quoteBoatin said..
Joshua Slocum in his circumnavigation in the Spray in the 1890's was visited several times by the navigator from Colombus' Pinta from the 1590's.
that is a great read that book !!!!!
